College News

Construction and Renovation Projects Still Underway at Catawba College

With less than a month to go before the five new residence halls on the Catawba College campus are scheduled to be completed, crews with the project general contractor, Summit Development of Salisbury, continue to adhere to a strict timeline.

"We've had requests from folks who want to tour the residence halls, but there's no way I'm going to ask the crews to stop their work even for an hour," explained Catawba College Facilities Director Henry Haywood. "They're working frantically to meet our August 1st deadline."

Haywood said painting is going on now in the residence halls, while carpet and tile work has been completed. Appliances for the halls have been delivered and are on site, but will only be installed after painting is finished.

One hundred and twenty-six upper-class students signed up in early April to live in the new residence halls next year. College officials decided not to charge a price differential for living in these halls, but to instead, limit access to them to upper-class students. An open house scheduled in late April gave these students a chance to walk through their new living spaces.

The two B-buildings feature suite-style living spaces which share common study areas on the second and third floors, as well as two kitchens to be shared by residents on all three floors. The three A-buildings feature apartment-style living spaces and will have a kitchen per apartment. All five buildings will be handicap accessible on each first floor level, and all five will be sprinkled.

A courtyard of brick pavers will be constructed between the two B-buildings, while common landscaping and walkways between the A and B-buildings will tie the halls together into Abernethy Village.

New 'smart card' technology will be used in the new residence halls and the other halls on-campus, replacing the current swipe card method used to control access to buildings.

The Cannon Student CenterWork to renovate one portion of the Cannon Student Center (Phase I) began in May and will be completed by the end of July. College administrators worked with the Winston-Salem architect Larry Robb and the project manager, Knoxville, Tennessee-based Lawler Woods, to revamp the wing of the Cannon Student Center which houses the Student Affairs offices and to enclose and update Adams Loft.

The interior of the College Bookstore, now outsourced to and managed by Follett Higher Education Group, also has been renovated and expanded to provide more display space for products. "The bookstore has received a complete makeover," said Bookstore Manager Cindy Most. "Along with the textbooks, we'll be able to offer a wider variety of products for our students as well as great Catawba apparel and merchandise for students, alumni and friends of the College."

Phase II of the Cannon Student Center renovation will begin as Phase I concludes and is expected to be completed in November of this year. Phase II will include renovation of McCorkles, the College snack bar, and Leonard Lounge, a large common space in the center of the building.

The Hurley Room, a popular meeting space on campus, will remain off-line through the renovations and construction of the new addition; it will be relocated in the new addition and will overlook the Shuford Stadium and the Hurley Press Box. The campus post office, formerly adjacent to the bookstore on the main level of the Cannon Student Center, has been temporarily relocated in a mobile unit until the new construction is completed.

In mid-August, Haywood said, Phase III of the renovation will begin with groundwork for utilities to construct a 7,000 square foot addition off the back west wing of the Cannon Student Center. This addition will house the post office, a fitness center with an aerobics space, the Hurley Room, an executive dining area, and a small kitchenette. It should be completed by March 2008.

Catawba's food service provider, Chartwells, a division of Compass, Inc., has been working with Larry Robb, the architect for the student center, to come up with a new design and layout for McCorkles', the snack bar on the main level, and to reconfigure the layout in the dining hall on the lower level of the building.

Corriher-Linn-Black LibraryHaywood says the staff and collections of Catawba's Corriher-Linn-Black Library are still scheduled to move back to their renovated space over Christmas holidays of the '07-'08 academic year. The staff and resources of the Corriher-Linn-Black Library are temporarily relocated to the second floor of Hoke Hall and four mobile units are on campus behind Hoke Hall to house library collections during the renovation period.

The library was gutted and contractors are working on finishing interior renovations now. The Salisbury architectural firm of Ramsey, Burgin and Smith Architects, Inc. has oversight for these renovations which capitalize on existing tall ceilings, large windows and spacious public spaces.

Adjacent to the library, a new asphalt parking lot has been created which will give residential students 17 additional spaces for parking on campus.